First female rapper debuts in Afghanistan
阿富汗首位女性饒舌歌手出道

Sat, Oct 20, 2012 - Page 10

Afghanistan’s first female rapper Sosan Firooz pleads into her microphone, “Listen to my story! Listen to my pain and suffering!”

With her first rap song, the outspoken 23-year-old singer is making history in her homeland where society frowns on women who take the stage. She is already shunned by some of her relatives.

But for Firooz, the best way to express herself is through rap, a musical genre that is just starting to generate a following in Afghanistan. She sings about the repression of women, her hopes for a peaceful Afghanistan and the misery she says she experienced as a small child living in neighboring Iran.

So far, the song, titled Our Neighbors, has only been released on YouTube, with a video that shows a series of pictures of Firooz posing in hip-hop style gear. In some pictures, she wears a bandana with skulls, but her long hair flows freely, with no headscarf — a rarity among Afghan women.

Firooz is also an actress, appearing in supporting roles in a number of local TV soap operas. Earlier this month, she sang at a three-day music festival in Kabul.